ROME, April 17, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — The extensive fire that tore through Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris on Monday is a sign of the “spiritual conflagration” that has ripped through the Catholic Church in the past fifty years, Bishop Athanasius Schneider has said.

In comments to LifeSite on Wednesday, the auxiliary of Astana, Kazakhstan said the devastating fire that ravaged the Paris cathedral contains an “unmistakable spiritual message.”

Destruction - Sign - Life - Church - Decades

The destruction is a “symbolic and evocative” sign of “what happened in the life of the Church” in recent decades, he says, as people have “witnessed a conflagration of the Church’s most precious spiritual masterpieces” — her liturgy, faith and moral life, especially among priests.

The clerical sex abuse scandal, he adds, is the “climax” of this “decades-long spiritual conflagration.”

Comments - Bishop - Schneider - Conclusions - Cause

In his comments, Bishop Schneider makes no conclusions about the cause of the Notre Dame fire but places it in context of the series of arson attacks perpetrated against Catholic churches in the last year.

Elaborating on the tragedy’s “stirring” message, he identifies as the “spiritual arsonists” in the Church the members of the “liberal” establishment of heterodox theologians and clergy who have contributed to the crisis in the Church or who refuse to address its root causes. Many among their ranks, he notes, now regard Benedict XVI as a “troublemaker” for obstructing their “incendiary work,” through his recent essay.

Bishop - Schneider - Blaze - Notre - Dame

Bishop Schneider insists that the blaze at Notre Dame is a “cri de coeur for authentic conversion,” especially among the “Shepherds of the Church.”

According to the auxiliary of Astana, it is also a call to the entire Church to do penance for the spiritual conflagration that has ripped through the Church in the past fifty years.

Penance - Reparation - Betrayal - Command - God

“Penance and reparation must be made, especially for the betrayal of the command of God the Father that...